Lucknow: With an aim to extend benefits to the farmers, the Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh has decided to clear Non-Performing Assets (NPA) of banks associated with farm loans in a phased manner starting with Co-operative bank, followed by Commercial banks.
The decision regarding this was taken in the state cabinet meeting held here on Monday.
The State Health Minister and government's one of the official spokesperson Sidharthnath Singh said that when UP government announced ''Farm loan waiver scheme'' the NPA was estimated to be Rs 6,000 crore.
"But actually NPA of Co-operative bank was Rs 1,893 crore while that of commercial bank was Rs 2,506 crore. It affected 15,90,201 farmers," Mr Singh said.
"The cabinet has now decided to clear NPA of Co-operative banks in one go. This will benefit 12,61,225 farmers," he said adding that for NPA upto Rs one lakh, 75 per cent of the burden will be shared by state government while the rest be cleared by Co-operative banks by its own resources as per one time settlement formula.
Mr Singh said that NPA of Commercial banks will be cleared later on. The farm loan waiver scheme of the government was announced by the government in its first meeting. Two phases of the loan waiver has been completed under which over Rs 15,000 crore loan has been waived off, which has benefited Rs 22.68 lakh farmers so far, the Minister said.
He claimed that 96 per cent of this amount had waived off loan of those farmers who had a loan of more than Rs 10,000.
In another decision government has decided to amend the act for simplifying appointment of UP Sub-ordinate Revenue Inspectors. Earlier 25 per cent of the appointments were made through Public Service Commission and rest through cadre promotion like from Amin and Lekhpal.
"As the government is facing scarcity of experienced people it has decided to make all appointments through cadre promotion," the Minister said. UP Cabinet has given a green signal to reserve mining contract for Public Works Department, National Highway Authority of India and Dedicated Freight Corridor so that they do not face crisis of construction material like coarse sand.
PWD was allotted mines in Sonebhadra, Jhansi, Mahoba, Allahabad and Banda regions while NHAI will get mining licence in Sonebhadra, Mahoba, Allahabad, Banda and Chitrakot. Dedicated Freight Corridor will have mining contract in Sonebhadra, Mahoba, Chitrakoot and Allahabad.
"These construction agencies will hire their mines and operate as per their requirement. But they will have to pay double the royalty. This will increase the revenue of the state,"Mr Singh said.
UP government has also allowed increase in Decree Fees in Sub-ordinate Court as well as Guarantee Fees as per the directions of the High Court.
The state Cabinet has approved distinction between the Junior Basic School and Junior High School.
Mr Singh said that earlier it was difficult to differentiate between the two but now Cabinet has decalred that Junior Basic School will be from Class 1-5 while Junior High School will be from Class 1-8. "Appointment of teachers in these schools will be made accordingly," the Minister said.
In another decision UP government has also decided to replace Alp-Sankhaya (minority) word with Alp-viksit in a scheme Mukhya Mantri Shahri Alp-sankhayak Malin Vikas Yojana. This scheme will now be called as Mukhya Mantri Shahri Alp-viksit Malin Vikas Yojana.
UP government spokesperson Srikant Sharma said that it was Central government scheme and state's share was minimal.
''The state has paid Rs 355 crore of its share. Under this scheme roads and sewer lines are being constructed in these colonies, he said. UP government has also approved digitalization of land map and e-tendering of mining material like stone chips and granite.
